A Brief Look At Weather’s Affect On DPS

Weather system has been introduced in Pokemon Go for some time now. So some of you might be wondering how this weather system affects the DPS. Here is an analysis by a Reddit user DavidKSA.

Ex. Vaporeon vs. Ninetales (Raid)

Currently Vaporeon’s Water Gun hits an early breakpoint at level 27 (15 Attack IV), doing 5 damage per use. Assuming that weather will increase base power by 20%, Water Gun’s base power thereby increases to 6 damage. And as a result, we see a slightly higher breakpoint at level 29.5 (15 Attack IV).

Where this gets more interesting is the buff Hydro Pump gets. If you powered up a 15 Attack IV Vaporeon all the way to level 40, your Hydro Pump would only do 119 damage to Ninetales per use. A 20% increase on Hydro Pump’s base power now gives us 156 base power.

At level 29.5, Vaporeon’s Hydro Pump will do 131 damage in the rain. Power that up to, let’s say level 39, and you will be doing 142 damage per use of Hydro Pump. That’s a significant difference.

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Water Gun generates 5 energy every time you use it. So you’d need to use it 20 times in a vacuum to charge up one use of Hydro Pump. Of course, Vaporeon in actuality is taking damage from Ninetales, and is therefore passively gaining 1 energy for every 2 HP lost.

Our level 39 Vaporeon takes 5 damage per direct hit from Ninetale’s Feint Attack. So after 4 hits of Feint Attack, that gives you 10 energy, meaning you’d need to only have used Water Gun 18 times. Let’s assume after taking your 4 hits of Feint Attack, and having performed Water Gun 18 times, you are ready to use Hydro Pump.

All of that would only take about 10 seconds. In that time, with a base 5 power Water Gun having been performed 18 times, you’ve done 90 damage (at level 39). Your Hydro Pump subsequently does 118 damage. 208 damage for that initial cycle under normal weather conditions – 20.8 DPS

Compare that to Vaporeon’s Rain DPS cycle; now, Vaporeon is doing 6 damage per use of Water Gun, for 18 times that is 108 damage. Hydro Pump then does 142 damage. Yielding 250 damage for that initial cycle in the rain – 25 DPS

That is a 42 damage difference over 10 seconds, which makes for a pretty impressive difference in cycle DPS. Of course, the battle is stretched out over more than just one cycle, and Vaporeon’s overall DPS for its life will be lower than its initial cycle. But don’t be surprised when simulators show that Vaporeon is more than capable of soloing Ninetales in the rain.